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THE 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



AT 



CHERRY VALLEY, OTSEGO CO. N. Y. 
JUliY 4tli5 1 840. 



THE ADDRESSES 



WILLIAM W. CAMPBELL, Esq. 



AND 



GOV. W. H. SEWARD, 



WITH 



LETTERS, TOASTS, &C. <fcc. 



NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR & CLEMENT. 

1840. 



I r^-^^f 



st^ 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



AT 



CHERRY VALLEY, OTSEGO COUNTY, N. Y 
July 4th, 1840. 



T^From the Cherry Valley Gazette oj July 8th, 1840.] 

The Centennial Celebration of the settlement of this town, 
and the anniversary of the Independence of the United States, 
was celebrated in this village last Saturday, in a manner high- 
ly gratifying to the feelings of our citizens, and as we hope 
and believe, satisfactory to the visitors from abroad. 

The day was ushered in by the usual discharge of cannon 
and ringing of bells. At about half past 10 o'clock, A. M., 
a procession was formed in front of the hotel of Mr. Wil- 
kins, consisting of Capt. Hall's company of Cherry- Valley 
Volunteers ; the orator of the day, and reader of Declara- 
tion of Independence ; Clergy ; President and Vice Pres. 
idents of the day ; Committee of Arrangements ; Revolu- 
tionary Soldiers, strangers, and citizens. In this order the 
procession proceeded to the house of Doctor WiDiam Camp- 
bell, where they received his Excellency Gov. Seward, and 
Doctor Nott, President of Union College. 

Notice had been given that the exercises of the day 
would be performed in the Presbyterian Church, but long 



before the hour of commencing arrived, it was most evident 
that but a small part of the audience could be accommoda- 
ted in that spacious building. The procession, therefore, 
moved to the green in front of the Academy, where a stag- 
ing had on Saturday morning been erected, to be occupied 
by those who should address the assembled muhitude. 

Besides the inhabitants of this place, the audience was 
composed of great numbers of highly respectable gentle- 
men and ladies from abroad. New- York, Albany, and 
Troy, and the counties of Montgomery and Schoharie were 
represented by some of their most respectable citizens. 
Companies respectable for their numbers and character from 
our sister villages, honored us with their attendance. Taken 
in the aggregate, perhaps a more intellectual assemblage 
was seldom if ever collected on the account of any public 
celebration, except in our large cities. And we are happy 
to be able to state with great confidence that the speakers 
presented to this audience a feast truly rich and intellectual. 

The Declaration of Independence was read in a manner 
very impressive by David H. Little, Esq. who was fol- 
lowed in an historical address by William W. Campbell, 
Esq. a native of this town, now a resident of the city of 
New-York. As this address will soon appear in print, we 
shall not attempt a sketch of it, further than to say, that it 
contained many interesting and valuable historical facts 
connected with the early settlement of this town, a subject 
with which Mr. Campbell is more familiar than any other 
man, and abounded in passages of great eloquence and 
beauty. Though delivered in the open air, to an audience 
of about three thousand people, the speaker was distinctly 
heard by every one present, and commanded throughout 
that attention which can only be paid by an interested and 
delighted audience. The address was in every respect a 
finished and valuable production, and will greatly add to the 



high reputation which its author enjoys as a literary man 
and a public speaker. 

At the close of the historical address, the venerable Presi- 
dent of Union College addressed the assembly. In this 
town Doctor Nott commenced his career of usefulness 
and distinction ; he spoke on this occasion, from the front 
of the Academy, a building which more than forty years 
ago was erected through his influence, and we can say with 
confidence, that rarely, if ever since that early day, has his 
extraordinary eloquence produced the impression it did 
here, in his address at this time, and in his discourse in the 
church on the following day. The music which accompa- 
nied these exercises as designated in the order of arrange- 
ments, v.as conducted by Mr. Lindsley in a manner highly 
creditable to himself and to the choir. 

At the close of the addresses the procession was again 
formed by the Marshalls, and proceeded to the place where 
the public dinner was provided, which was got up in Mr. 
Wilkins' usual good style. The proceedings at the dinner ; 
the toasts drank, and several interesting letters from gentle- 
men from abroad, together with a sketch of the very elo- 
quent remarks of Gov. Seward, we hope to be able to pub- 
lish in our next paper. 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT CHERRY VALLEY, OTSEGO CO, N. Y. 
July 4th, 1840. 
BY WILLIAM W. CAMPBELL. 



The announcement that the great poet, novelist, and his- 
torian of Scotland was no more, produced a thrilling emo- 
ion throughout the civilized world. Gifted pens in both 
hemispheres paid noble tributes to his memory, and the 
beautiful idea was conceived of grouping together and pre- 
senting at a single glance the most prominent characters, 
both fictitious and historical, which had been illustrated and 
adorned by the genius of the immortal Scott. While 
he lay in state in the proud halls of Abbotsford, there passed 
in long procession the monarch with his retinue display- 
ing the pomp and pageantry of the middle ages — the belted 
knight clad in steel marching with a warrior's step, and ac- 
companied by his lady love — old men and maidens — noble 
and ignoble, the Jew, the Christian, and the Pagan — each 
in their turn, as they moved past, casting a last look upon 
the mortal remains of him whose name as long as letters 
endure can never perish from the earth. But as they come 
up in review before our own minds, do we not intuitively 
select some of the most humble and lowly as objects of im- 



itation and of love. Forgetting the proud array of titles 
and of names, we call up with earnest and admiring feelings 
the artless simplicity and heroic fortitude of that noble speci- 
men of female character, the Jeannie Deans in the Heart of 
Mid- Lothian. 

My fellow citizens, we are assembled this day at the 
close of the first century since the settlement of Cherry Val- 
ley. We are here on the anniversary of our nation's birth- 
day to mark down the closing hours of that century, and ere 
they are all numbered, to sketch out and place on record, the 
scenes, and actions, and events, and characters to which it 
has given birth in our little valley. It has become my duty, 
as it is my pleasure, to make up that record which may aid 
in fixing this day as a landmark for the guidance and di- 
rection of those who may come after us. If in the brief re- 
view of the century which is just passing away I shall pre- 
sent no gorgeous spectacle — no long train of titled lords and 
warrior knights, I may be able to sketch characters which 
shall commend themselves by their intelligence, their morals, 
their courage, and their undying patriotism. Plain and 
humble though they may have been, and confined within a 
narrow sphere of action, they were eminent in their respec- 
tive stations — they discharged with ability the duties which 
devolved upon them, and have passed away and left their 
impress upon this the place of their and your habitation. 

Most of the first settlers of this Valley, though originally 
from Scotland, emigrated to North America from Ireland. 
Some of them came in what was called the Londonderry 
emigration. A portion of this body of emigrants landed 
in the spring of 1719, at Casco Bay, near the present city 
of Portland, in Maine. Like most of the New-England 
colonists they sought a home and a place to worship God. 
Immediately upon lauding from their vessel, under the open 
heaven, and upon the sea-shore, they commenced the wor- 



ship of their Creator. The sands of a new Continent were 
beneath their feet. The waves of the Atlantic were dash- 
ing around them. The sky of the new world was over 
them. 

The perfect world by Adam trod, 

Was the first temple built by God ; 

His fiat laid the corner stone, 

And heaved its pillars one by one. 

In this temple our fathers first worshipped God in this 
western land. Standing on the shore of the ocean with 
their little bark riding near them, they raised their voices 
and sung the 137th Psalm of the Sweet Singer of Israel. 
As they looked back upon the homes of their youth— upon 
the friends and kindred left behind — upon the blessings and 
comforts of civilization, well might they sing, 

" B-y the waters of Babylon^ there we sat down, yea, we 
wept, ivhen we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps 
upon the willows in the midst thereof." 

But they looked forward with hope and constancy, and as 
they remembered their covenant vows, and their determina- 
tion to observe and maintain their religious duties, they also 
united and sung in the sublime language of the Psalmist, 

" If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her 
cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to 
the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my 
chief joy," (See note A.) 

On application made by this Colony to the Supreme Ju- 
dicial Court of Massachusetts, a tract of land was granted 
them, to which they removed in the summer of the same 
year. The settlement was named after the place from whence 
they sailed, and still retains the name of Londonderry, now 
in the southern part of New. Hampshire. The colonists 
immediately organized a society, settled a minister, and 



commenced laying broad and deep the foundations of reli- 
gion and of civil order. Many of the early settlers of 
Cherry Valley removed from this Londonderry Colony in 
1741-2 — the first actual settlement having been made by 
Mr. Lindesay, one of the patentees, in 1740. 

The patent of Cherry Valley was granted in 1738, by 
George Clark, then Lieutenant Governor of the province 
of New-York, with consent of the council, to John Linde- 
say, Jacob Roseboom, and others. The patentees proba- 
bly re-leased a portion of the land to Governor Clark, as 
we find tiers of lots still owned by his lineal descendants 
in this county. 

It has been cause of speculation and inquiry why the pa- 
tentees sought a patent of land so remote as this place then 
was, and lying'^as it did, beyond unoccupied lands more eligi- 
bly situated and of greater value. It has been said that Mr. 
Lindesay, the principal patentee, was pleased with the wild 
and romantic features of the country, which were not unlike 
his native Scotland. We can easily imagine that at that 
early day, ere the woodman's axe had broken into the for- 
est, the scene which our little Valley presented was one of 
quiet and picturesque beauty. Here was^ the purling brook 
— the cascade — the rock and dell — the beautiful forest tree 
— the blossoming cherry and the wild mountain flower. 
The tall and graceful elm rose conspicuous in the valley, 
while the dark foliage of the rock maple and the evergreen 
marked the elevation of the surrounding hills. From the 
summit of those hills, the eye took in at a glance a large part 
of the valley of the Mohawk, and stretching on beyond were 
seen the Sacondaga mountains on the north, and far away 
in the north-east the green mountains of Vermont. A few 
German families were scattered along the banks of the Mo- 
hawk, but on leaving that river the emigrant or settler found 
himself at once in the midst of the virgin forest. The 



10 



whole country called by us the great west, the vast valley 
of the Mississippi, was almost a terra incognita^ an un- 
known land. An occasional adventurer had made his way 
into the interior, and had engaged in traffic with the abo- 
riginal inhabitants, who claimed as owners, and roamed over 
the wide vallies and praries.^ A few others, less hardy and 
enterprising, had passed along the shores of the great lakes, 
and like Moses upon mount Pisgah, caught a distant view 
of the promised land. A few French from Canada had in- 
termarried with the native population, and introduced some 
slight features of civilization among the red men of the for- 
est. With these exceptions, the whole country west of 
Cherry Valley, reaching on to the Pacific Ocean, was one 
unbroken wilderness. 

Attracted more perhaps by the beauty of the scenery than 
by the fertility of the soil, here Mr. Lindesay took up his 
abode in the summer of 1740. An Indian foot path afforded 
him communication with the Mohawk river. The winter 
which followed was one of great severity. Long ere spring 
revisited the valley his provisions were exhausted. The 
snow had fallen to a great depth, and had entirely interrupt- 
ed his intercourse with the settlements of the Mohawk. 
The fierce winds howled around his frail dwelling. The gi- 
gantic forest trees glistened with the frosts of winter. The 
beauty of the summer scene had faded away. He realized 
in their greatest extent the dangers and trials of a borderer. 
A lingering death for himself and family by starvation was 
before him. At this critical period an Indian arrived from 
the Mohawk river on snow-shoes. This Indian returned 
and procured provisions, which he carried to Mr. Lindesay 
upon his back, and thus saved the lives of the first family 
which settled in this valley. 

About the time of his first settlement, Mr, Lindesay con. 
ferred with the Rev. Samuel Dunlop, a native of Ireland, 



11 

and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, up on the sub- 
ject of adding to the settlement through his influence with 
his countrymen at home and in this country. Mr. Dunlop 
went to Ireland and returned in 1742. He was married in 
Ireland, and his young wife came with him to pitch their 
tents in the wilderness. At the same time Mr. Dick- 
son and Mr. Gait, and families, arrived in company 
with Mr. Dunlop from Ireland, and Mr. Ramsey and James 
Campbell with their families in the same year, arrived frorr, 
Londonderry in New-Hampshire. Mr. Dickson and Mr. 
Gait purchased farms in the south part of the patent — Mr. 
Ramsey in the western part, and James Campbell purchas- 
ed a farm north of the village, now owned by his grandson 
James S. Campbell, Esq. — Mr. Dunlop purchased the farm 
formerly owned and occupied by Dr. Joseph White, and 
now owned and occupied by his son-in-law Jacob Liv- 
ingston, Esq. 

It may here be observed that one of the first movements 
of this little colony, was the organization of a church under 
the pastoral charge of Mr. Dunlop, and the erection of a 
rude edifice of logs in which they assembled to worship the 
God of their fathers. In his own house Mr. Dunlop open- 
ed a classical school, and there educated some young men 
from the German families on the Mohawk, who afterward, and 
especially during the revolution, acted conspicuous parts. 
Among the number were Col. Henry and Major John Frey. 
It is worthy of especial remembrance that in this Valley the 
first regular society was organized for religious worship in 
the English language, and the first classical school establish- 
ed in central or western New York. I have not been able 
to find an account of any other church or school at that 
early day, between this place and the immediate vicinity of 
the Hudson river, though there may have been classical 
schools at Schenectaday. The church organized under the 



12 



•patronage of Sir William Johnson, at Johnstown, was not 
founded until iibout 1765. 

The conduct of our fathers in the establishment of 
churches and schools, is the best evidence of the spirit with 
which the foundations of this settlement w^re laid. Virtue 
and knowledge, the two great pillars of republican institu- 
tions, were in the very commencement the object of their 
pursuit. They sought to plant here in the centre of the 
wilderness the seeds of Christianity and civilization. Their 
aim was noble — their enterprize was worthy and deserved 
success. Their numbers were small. Their means were 
limited. But their hearts were undaunted. Their courage 
did not forsake them. Their minds had been made up for 
the undertaking. They resolved to be and they were suc- 
cessful. 

Settlements were not then, as now, thrown forward almost 
with the rapidity of the earth's own motion, so that a fron- 
tier hamlet of to-day becomes a city with a densely peopled 
country around it to-morrow. On the contrary, the en- 
croachments upon the wilderness, and upon the home of the 
red man, previous to the revolution, were made slowly and 
with great caution. The white population advanced along 
the banks of the rivers, and the margins of the tributary 
streams. Occasionally, as was the case with this settlement, 
a few families more adventurous, might plunge further into 
what was then termed the desert, and relying for protection 
on the God of Hosts and their own right arm, plant there 
the foundations of the white man's home. But the increase 
of these frontier settlements was very slow. In 1752, twelve 
years after the first settlement of Cherry Valley, there were 
but ei^lit families in the place. In 1765, they had increased 
to forty families. The number in 1775, and at the com- 
Kiencement of the war, I do not know, but probably it did 
act exceed sixty families. 



13 

In 1744, Mr. John Wells removed to Cherry Valley. 
He purchased of Mr. Lindesay the farm occupied by him, 
and called Lindesay's bush, being the same farm now 
owned and occupied by Mr. Joseph Phelon. Mr. Wells 
was a man of fine character, and was highly respected in 
the settlement. He was appointed the first Justice of the 
Peace. His son Robert intermarried with a daughter of 
the Rev. Mr. Dunlop, and of this marriage, among other 
children, was John Wells, one of the most distinguished 
and able lawyers whom the State of New York has pro 
duced. His history, I trust, is familiar to all who hear me. 
You have heard of the destruction of his whole family, of 
his subsequent labors, his comparative obscurity in his pro- 
fession, until an opportunity was afforded for a display of 
his talents and genius, in his defence of the celebrated 
James Cheatham, editor of the American Citizen; when, as 
it were, with a single bound, he rose from that comparative 
obscurity to professional eminence. That distinguished 
lawyer always cherished a warm affection for this the place 
of his birth, and it was his intention had his life been 
spared for a few years longer, to have purchased the pro- 
perty of his ancestors, and to have retired from his profes- 
sion, and spent here the closing years of his life amid the 
scenes of his boyhood. 

Fr9m 1740 down to 1775, (as has already been stated,) the 
population of Cherry Valley increased slowly. That period 
had been one of considerable excitement, alarm and trial. 

The long and bloody wars between England and France 
had been carried forward. The battle field was transferred 
from Europe to America, and the contest for national su- 
premacy was maintained with renewed vigor amid the 
forest homes of our fathers, and upon their inland seas. 
Most of the Indian tribes at the north, allured away by the 
French Jesuits, and by the liberal presents of the so styled 

2 



14 



grand monarch of France, took up the hatchet against llie? 
English and Americans. The frontier inhabitants were 
kept under almost constant apprehension, and though the 
settlement of Cherry "Valley escaped destruction, yet the 
inhabitants were called into service, and exchanged the 
peaceable pursuits of agriculture for the excitements and 
dangers of the camp, and were engaged in distant and 
hazardous expeditions. When the war of the revolution 
commenced, Cherry Yalley was still a frontier settlement. 
A few inhabitants were settled in the present town of 
Springfield, a few in Middlefield, then called New town 
Martin. Along the banks of the Susquehannah, and in 
the valley of Unadilla and Otego creeks a lew settlers 
were found, and the brave and hardy family of Harpers had 
gone out from Cherry Yalley and planted a little colony at 
Harpersfield ; but Cherry Valley was considered the centre 
and gathering place of all these settlers. 

When the period arrived that the united colonies of North 
America were compelled to take up arms to maintain their 
rights, the announcement produced necessaiily a deep 
emotion through the frontier settlements. 

War at all times is to be deprecated and, if possible, avoid- 
ed. In the case of our revolution, war became justifiable 
on our part. 'The great principles of civil and religious 
liberty for which our ancestors contended in the old world, 
and which they sought to plant here in the new were invad- 
ed. The crisis had arrived when their rights must be sur- 
rendered, or the question must be tried by a long and bloody 
civil war. The minds of men vvere early marie up for the 
contest. In this section of country, the perils and trials 
of the inhabitants were probably greater than in any other 
section of the union. The six nations of Indians who 
early joined the English, were the most powerful and war- 
like of the aboriginal inhabitants. Yet in defiance of danger^ 



15 



mfii undismayed by threats of vengeance, the inhabitants of 
Tryon County rallied together when the indications of the 
gathering storm were seen only in the distance. 

U you will consider what was then the situation of that 
county, sparsely populated, and separated from the Hudson 
river and the Eastern States by a powerful tribe of Indians, 
and a large body of men attached to the English cause, or- 
ganized and commanded by influential and experienced men, 
and will then look at the early proceedings of their Committee 
of safety, you will find exhibited a fearlessness and determi- 
nation of spirit almost unparalleled even in that day of self- 
sacrificing and heroic devotion to country. Read the pro- 
ceedings of the Palatine Committee, as early as 27th August, 
1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence, 
when they asserted fearlessly their rights, and bound them- 
selves together to abide by all the regulations of the first 
Continental Congress. Read the resolutions of the same 
Committee passed May 21st, 1775, when in answer to the 
threats of Guy Johnson, then Indian superintendent, tliey 
resolved, "that as we abhor a state of slavery, we do join 
and unite together under all the ties of religion, honor, 
justice, and a love of freedom, never to become slaves, and 
to defend our freedom with our lives and fortunes." 

When the time, the place, and the circumstances are con- 
sidered under which that Committee met and passed the 
resolutions referred too, I think you will conclude with me 
that they are unparalleled. In their tone and sentiment 
they would have done credit to any Provincial Assembly, or 
even to the Continental Congress itself. The original 
draft of these resolutions [ found many years since in a 
neglected spot in the garret of the house of Major John Frey, 
and I have deposited the manuscript among the archives of the 
New York Historical Society, that it may remain as a memo* 
rial of the noble spirit of Tryon County. It is in thQ 



16 

handwriting of Christopher P. Yates, who was an eminent 
and able patriot. But if he had done nothing besides being 
the author and advocate of these resolutions, his name and 
his memory shoulo be warmly cherished in this section of 
country where you dwell. 

Here in Cherry Valley the leading citizens early embrac- 
ed the Colonial cause. la May, 1775, the common article 
of association was circulated, in which the signers pledged 
themselves to support the Continental Congress. It is 
unnecessary here, and indeed I have not time to detail the 
progress of the war, during the first years of its continu- 
ance. A fort was erected which occupied a portion of the 
present burial ground, and which was garrisoned by a regi- 
ment of L ontinental troops under the command of Col. Alden. 
Alarms and rumors were the order of the day. This re- 
. gion of country seems early to have been marked out 
for destruction, and the settlement of Cherry Valley after 
repeated alarms, was destined to share the common fate of 
the frontier hamlets of New York. 

The 11th of November, 177S, has been rendered memo- 
rable by the sacrifices and sufferings and death of many of 
the early settlers of this Valley. On the morning of that 
day no bright sun gilded the mountain tops with his beams, 
nor was the eye gladdened with the view of the rich tints of 
autumn. Clouds and mists were round about the homes of 
our fathers, as if veiling the horrid scenes which on that 
day were to be enacted. The gun from the fort early in 
the morning announced that the enemy was near. 'Ihe 
scouts had been surprized and taken, and the yell of the 
Indian, and the report of his rifle, heralded his approach to 
the garrison. The scattered inhabitants, most of them un- 
armed, strove to gain places of actual, or fancied security, 
but generally in vain. Some reached the fort and were 
saved, others were pursued and slain by the way side, and 



17 



the tomahawk and scalping knife drank the blood of others 
at their own fireside, and even while kneeling in prayer 
before their Maker, Others were retained as hostages or 
prisoners, to be borne away through the wilderness to take 
up their abode with savages, and to sufier a tedious and 
dreadful captivity. I have endeavoured in the history which 
I have heretofore presented to my fellow citizens, of the 
border wars of this State, to give a pi( ture of this Valley 
on the night succeedino; the day of the massacre. The 
place chosen for encampment of the enemy was about two 
miles south of the village, and near the site of the dwelling 
house of James Dickson. The prisoners were gathered 
around the watch fir< s drenched with the rain and sleet, and 
shivering with cold, with no protection from th'^rv storm. 
Thick darkness covered the Val'ey, except when some gust of 
wind kindled a flame for a moment amid the dying embers, 
and thus marked the spots where once had been their homes. 
The mangled corpses of relatives and neighbors lay un- 
buried around the ashes of their dwellings. Their own 
fate was hid from them. They knew not whether a long 
captivity awaited them, or whether on the morrow they 
should be offered up as sacrifices to appease the wrath or 
gratify the passions of their enemies. I can imagine no 
state of suspense more awful. Mercy, however, in a mea- 
sure triumphed, and a portion of the prisoners were releas- 
ed, and the rest were carried into captivity, and enabled 
to return after the lapse of many years. Between thirty 
and forty of the inhabitants were killed on the 11th of No- 
vember. It is unnecessary at this time to give their names. 
On the following day their corpses were gathered toge- 
ther, and under the protection of the garrison were deposit- 
ed in a common grave. It would have been very gratify^ 
ing if on this occasion we could have laid the corner 
stone of a monument to mark the place of their burial^ and 

2* 



18 



which, while it commemorated the death of those who 
perished on the 11th of November, 1778, might have 
endured also as a memorial of this anniversary which we 
this day celebrate. 

This destruction of the settlement closed the revolution- 
ary drama at Cherry Valley. The small fort was abandon- 
ed in the following summer, and the troops joined Gene- 
ral James Clinton's detachment, when on his way to join 
Gen. Sullivan, in the famous expedition against the sis 
nations in 1779. This v\hole region of country was 
swept over by an ever active and vindictive enemy. At the 
close of the revolution, and \\hen peace was once more re- 
stored, the remnant of the inhabitants returned to their for- 
mer homes, but war, and disease, and poverty had done 
them fearful work ; and many a once familiar face was never 
again seen round the domestic hearth. In 1784 a fe?v log 
houses were built by the inhabitants who had returned, and 
in the same year the immortal Washington honored our 
little Valley with a visit. He came up from the Mohawk 
river for the purpose of visiting this place, and also examin- 
ing the outlet of Lake Otsego, where, in 1779, Gen. James 
Clinton threw a dam across the Susquehannah, preparatory 
to his descent of that river. 

It has already been stated that the first inhabitants of 
Cherry Valley were mostly religious people. Like the Pu- 
ritans of New-England they were watchful and jealous of 
any infraction of Christian duties. Many of my hearers 
will have read the letter addressed by the Committee of 
Safety of Cherry Valley to the general Committee of Tryon 
county. It was as follows : 

Cherry Valley, June 9ik, 1775. 
Sirs : 

We received yours of yesterday relative to the meet- 
ing of the Committee on Sunday, which surprised u& not » 



19 

little, inasmuch as it seems not to be on any alarming cif- 
cumstaiice, which if it was, we should readily attend. But 
as that does not appear to us to be the case, we think it very 
improper; for unless the necessity of the Committee sit- 
ting superexceed the duties to be performed in attending 
the worship of God, we think it ought to be put off till 
another day; and therefore we conclude not to give our at- 
tendance at this time unless you adjourn the sitting of the 
Committee till Monday morning, and in that case we will 
give our attendance as early as you please. But otherwise 
we cannot allow ourselves to be cut short of attending on 
the public worship, except the case be so necessitous as to 
exceed sacrifice. We conclude with wishing success to the 
common cause, and subscribe ourselves the free born sons 
of liberty, John Moore, -••^ 

Samuel Clyde, 
Samuel Campbell. 

I have introduced this letter for the purpose of calling at- 
tention more particularly to a meeting of the inhabitants in 
1785, after the storm of war had passed over, and when 
quiet and peace once more rested upon the borders. Nei- 
ther war, nor exile, nor poverty had caused them to forget 
their Christian duties or the importance of religious so- 
cieties. 

On the 5th of April, 1785, a public meeting of the citi- 
zens was held, the objects of which will be best explained 
by the record made at the time. It is as follows : 

" We, the miae?iHahabitants of Cherry Valley, in the coun- 
ty of Montgomery and state of New. York, having returned 
from exik, find ourselves destitute of our church ofiicersy 
viz. Deacons and Elders. In consequence of our difScul- 
ties, and other congregations in similar circumstances, our 
legislature thought proper to pass a law for the relief of 



20 



these, viz. An act to incorporate all religious societies, pass- 
ed April the 6th, 1784. In compliance of said act we pro- 
ceeded as follows : 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

At a meeting of a respectable number of the old inhabi- 
tants of Cherry Valley, it was agreed upon, that an advertise- 
ment should be set up to give notice to all the former in- 
habitants, that are returned to their respective habitations, to 
meet at the meeting-house yard, on Tuesday, the fifth day of 
April next, at ten o'clock, before noon, then and there to 
choose trustees, who shall be a body corporate for the pur- 
pose of taking care of the temporalities of their respective 
Presbyterian congregation, agreeable to an act of the Le- 
gislature of the State of New York, passed April sixth, one 
thousand seven hundred and eighty four. 

Samuel Clyde, 
Justice of the Peace. 

Cherry Valley, March 19th, 1785. 

Cherry Valley, Jipril bth, 1785. 
1st. The Congregation being met agreeable to the above 
advertisement, proceeded as follows : viz. the Congregation 
having no Minister, nor Elders, or Deacons, at present, by 
reason of death and removal of such in the late war. We, 
the people at large, did nominate and elect the following two 
members of the Congregation to be the returning officers and 
judges of the qualification of the electors of said meeting. 

Col. Samuel Campbell, 
William Dickson. 

2d. Proceeded as follows at the said meeting and have 
nominated Col. Samuel Clyde, John Campbell, Jr., and 
James Wilson, to be the truste-s for said congregation. 



21 

The trustees appointed James Cannon as clerk for said 
board. 

Cherry Valley, April 5th, 1785. 
At a meeting of the inhabitants of Cherry Valley this day, 
the undermentioned were elected trustees for the Presbyte- 
rian Congregation, Samuel Clyde, Esq. 

John Campbell, Jr. 
James Wilson. 

Electors^ JYames — Robert Shankland, William Thompson, 
Samuel Ferguson, James Moore, Jr., John Campbell, Jr.? 
Hugh Mitchell, William Gault, James Cannon, Samuel 
Campbell, Jr., Samuel Clyde, Esq., Samuel Campbell, 
William Dickson, James Dickson, Daniel McColIum, 
John McKillip, Israel Wilson, Luther Rich, James Wil- 
son, Thomas Whitaker, Benjamin Dickson, John Dunlop* 

Cherry Valley, April, 6th 17S5. 
To all to whom it doth or may concern, Greeting: We, 
Samuel Campbell and William Dickson, returning Officers, 
by virtue of the law of this State, entitled an act to enable all 
the Religious denominations in this State, to appoint trustees, 
who shall be a body corporate for the purpose of taking care 
of the temporalities of their respective congregations, and for 
other purposes therein mentioned, passed the sixth day of 
April, One thousand seven hundred and eighty four, of the 
Presbyterian Congregation of Cherry Valley, in the county 
of Montgomery, do hereby certify that Samuel Clyde, John 
Campbell, Jr. and James Wilson, were duly and legally 
elected trustees of said congregation, and that the said truS' 
tees and their successors shall for ever hereafter be a body 
corporate, and he called, distinguished, and known by the 
name and title of Trustees of the Presbyterian Church in 
Cherry Valley, in the County of Montgomery, 



22 



Given under our bauds and seals this fifth day of 
April, One thousand seven hundred and eighty five. 

Samuel Campbell. [L.S.] 
William Dickson. [L.S.] 

Measures were soon after taken for building a church edi- 
fice, but it was not completed until some years after. The 
plan adopted seems to have been to sell pew ground, and 
with the proceeds to erect the building, each purchaser of 
pew ground stipulating to construct his own pew thereon, 
according to a uniform plan, after the building should be 
enclosed. The purchaser of pew ground was to pay partly 
in money, and partly in produce at the market price. 
Many of my hearers will recollect the old church with its 
square high back pews which occupied a part of the bury- 
ing ground, or meeting house yard as it is styled in the fore- 
going proceedings, and which was taken down about twelve 
or thirteen years ago, when the present Presbyterian church 
edifice was erected. 

The meeting of the inhabitants of Cherry Valley on the 
5th of April, 1785, is deserving of particular attention. 
The remnant of the ancient inhabitants, as they styled them- 
selves, had returned to their farmar homes. They had re- 
turned, they say, from exile. The long and bloody wai 
through which they had passed, had thinned their ranks and 
whitened the heads, and furrowed the cheeks, of the survi- 
vors. They had once more a home, but it was again a forest 
home. 

The wild beast hal mad:^ its lair amid the ruins of their 
former dwellings. The briar, the thistle, and the sapling 
grew rank upon their garden spots. In the autumn of 1784, 
a few log huts had been built, but in the spring of 1785, 
when this meeting was called, there was no building in the 
settlement where the inhabitants could assemble together. 
They met; therefore, like their fathers under the open heavens. 



23 



The place where they gathered together was hallowed 
ground. It had been set apart for the burial of their dead. 
The graves of their kindred and friends were round about 
them. It was the place which had been consecrated by their 
patriotism, for there stood their little fort. 

On that same spot the inhabitants assembled together and 
organized anew on the 5th day of April, 1785, that Presby. 
terian Society which has continued to this day. 

The first regular pastor was settled in 1796, and he was 
our reverend and distinguished guest* who has this day 
honored our li tie valley with his presence, and who nearly 
half a century ago commenced here his sacred ministra- 
tions, and preached here the gospel to our fathers. Long 
may his valuable life be spared to the church and to the lit- 
erary institution over which he has long presided with so 
much ability and success. 

From 1785 down to the present time, our valley has not 
been signalized by any remarkable changes. The increase 
of population has been gradual though constant. It has not 
increased in this town and county as in that vast country 
west, which has since that period sprung into being, and is 
now teeming with millions of people. Our own little val- 
ley has contributed to swell that western tide, and she num- 
bers there many engaged in the various pursuits of life, and 
among the learned professions many who received here their 
academical or professional education. 

Of the first settlers, the late Col. Samuel Campbell was the 
last survivor. Of his character I shall not speak at length, 
but I may be permitted to say that he was a true patriot and 
an excellent citizen. He served in the French war and 
was with Sir William Johnson at Fort Kdward in 1757, at 
the time of the Massacre at Fort William Henry. During 

♦ Rev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College. 



24 



the stormy period of the revolution he was an active and 
efficient friend of his country, and at its close, found him- 
self stripped of most of his property. Again he commen- 
ced his laborious life, and lived to see a large and prosper- 
ous family around him. He was but three years old when 
he came with his father to this town in 1741. He closed his 
eventful life in fe'eptember, 1824, at the age of 86. 
(NoteB.) 

While he was the last of the first settlers, his aged consort, 
who died a few years since at the age of 92, may be said to 
have been the last survivor of the female actors in the revo- 
lutionary drama of our valley. 

She was born near the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and 
when about ten years of age, she removed with her father, 
Matthew Cannon, to this country. Her settlement, her 
marria?e, her heroic fortitude, and attachment to her country^ 
her long and severe Indian captivity, are circumstances 
upon which I need not dwell ; her friends and her descend- 
ants cherish her memory with ardent affection. (Note C.) 
t Col. Samuel Clyde was an able and efficient co-worker 
in the revolutionary struggle. He was a stern and inflexi- 
ble patriot, and exerted a large influence in this district of 
country. He was appointed the first Justice of the Peace 
after the war. He, too, in his revolutionary toils, was 
aided and supported by his courageous and patriotic wife. 
' John Moore was another sterling man. While nature 
had been sparing in her physical gifts, she had endowed him 
with a strong and vigorous intellect which had been well cul- 
tivated'coasidering the circumstances in]which he was placed. 
Of the Rev. Samuel Dunlop I have already spoken. He 
was an educated man, and for nearly forty years minister- 
ed to the early settlers. 

At the time of the massacre his family were slain. He 
alone with one daughter escaped. Lnder the protection of 



25 

an Indian Chief, he stood and beheld the destruction 
of his earthly hopes, his home, and the homes of his friends, 
melt away with the flames. 

" Calm opposite the Christian father rose, 
Pale on his venerable brow its rays 
Of martyr light the conflagration throws ; 
One hand upon his lovely child he lays, 

**** + *♦* 

He for his bleeding country prays to Heaven, 

Prays that the men of blood themselves may be forgiven." 

He survived the massacre but a short time. The misfor- 
tunes of that day carried down his grey hairs with sorrow to 
the grave. 

Of the brave and determined Captain Robert McKean, 
what shall we say — of him who knew no danger and feared 
no man, who challenged to the combat the great chieftain 
and captain of the Si^ N^ations, Joseph Brant Thayendana- 
gea. What shall we say of the eccentric though fearless 
Robert Shankland, who defended his house single handed, 
with the exception of his sou,* a lad of 14, against a consid- 
erable body of Indians, and who abandoned it only when it 
was about to be consumed over him by the flames. Where 
are they all, with the Gaults and the Dicksons, and the 
Ramseys and the Wilsons, who first planted here the seeds 
of civilization ? These are questions of a solemn nature, 
which crowd themselves upon our minds upon occasions 
like the present. The century has rolled away and left its 
impress for good or for evil. Of the early settlers not one 
survives. Their children and their children's children occu- 
py the places of some, and the voices of strangers are heard 
in the dwellings of others. They have all been gathered to 
their resting places, and the ashes of most of them sleep 

* The late Thomas Shankland of Cooperstown. 
3 



26 



quietly in yonder grave-yard. The clods of the valley are 
upon them, to be removed only at the general resiirrectioa. 

"The breezy call of incense breathing morn, 
The swallow twittering fron his straw built shed, 
The cock's shrill clarion and the echoing horn, 
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed," 

In the last ten years what ravages has death made in our 
little valley, I miss amid the scenes of my childhood many 
of the familiar faces of those who once greeted my return to 
the home of my fathers. They are also numbered with the 
great host of the departed, and their places are fast filling 
with those who knew them not. Among the leading men 
we might mention the elder and younger Drs. White, both 
eminent physicians, Col. James Cannon, Isaac Seelye, 
Esq., and James 0. Morse, Esq., both able lawyers, Jesse 
Johnson, Erastus Johnson, William C. Dickson, William 
Story, Alfred Crafts, with many others, who but a day since 
were living, and whose faces it seems as if I ought now to 
see before me. 

James O. Morse, Esq , always took a deep interest in the 
history of this place and in thecharacter of its early inhabitants. 
He was born in Marlboro, in the county of Middlesex. Mas- 
sachusetts, in 17S8, and removed with his parents when 5 
years of age to the county of Oneida,in this .'^tate, and when 
that county was almost a wilderness. Familiar as he was 
with the biographies of most of the frontier inhabitants who 
had in any way distinguished themselves, his conversation 
in relation to such subjects was peculiarly interesting and 
instructive. Many years ai>o he spoke to me of this anni- 
versary, and had his life been spared he would have taken 
a deep interest in the proceedings of this day. 

Allow me to mention ano her name conDected di- 
rectly with the first settlement of Cherry Val.ey, I 



27 

mean Deacon John Gault. Humble was his sphere of 
life. Poverty, and many of the ills which flesh is heir 
to, sickness and decrepitude, were his portion on the 
earth. But with a christian spirit which rose above them 
all, he drank with cheerfulness the cup given him to drink 
in life, and looked forward with peace and joy to that bet- 
ter world, where sorrow and sighing are no more, where the 
■wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. 
Who has not observed his cheerful and contented counte- 
nance, as he entered the sanctuary on a sabbath morn, lean- 
ing on his staff, his only aid while plodding along over the 
tedious miles which intervened between his residence and 
that sanctuary. Who has not listened to his truly eloquent 
and appropriate prayers. If he was a christian, he was 
also a patriot. This day he would have delighted to honor. 
But he, too, our old and familiar friend, has been gathered to 
his fathers in peace. His virtues should be imitated, for 
they were great, and it is but fitting that on this occasion 
this passing tribute should be paid to his memory. 

We miss also many others who commenced with us the 
race of life. A part of them still live, and are pursuing 
their various occupations either in our own wide spread 
country, or in distant lands. IVlany of them also have gone 
the way of all the living. Some died at home in the pre- 
sence of their friends, and sleep now quietly beside those 
who gave them being. Others have been cut ofl" in the 
prime of life, and have fallen faraway from their kindred; 
and one,* endeared to many of us by her talents, her piety, 
and her moral courage, has recently departed, and her re- 
mains repose in the cemetery of the Nestorian christians, 
within the sacred precincts of the first christian church 
planted by the Magi of Persia, and within the confines of 

* Mrs. Grant, adopted daughter of Dr. William Campbell of 
Cherry Valley, and late missionary at Oroomiah, Persia. 



28 

that city in Central Asia, where the far famed Zoroaster in 
ages gone by, first lit up the fires of philosophy. 

We might add many other names to the list. As we run 
over the catalogue of departed relatives and friends, we are 
forcibly reminded how frail and brittle is the chord which 
binds us to life. In the morning we see our friends around 
us, and in health, and ere the sun goes down the golden 
bowl is broken at the cistern, the dust returns to the dust from 
whence it was taken, and the spirit unto God who gave it. 

Of this large assembly now before me, in all human pro- 
bability not one will open his eyes upon the morning of the 
4th of July, 1940. Long ere that even the inscriptions upon 
our tombstones may be obliterated, and our descendants may 
look in vain for the green hillocks which mark our resting 
places. 

But as those who gave us being, labored and toiled for 
our best interests, so our duty is to transmit to those 
who shall come after us, the inheritance which we have 
received, of a free government, religious liberty, and all 
the blessings of civilization. To discharge that duty 
successfully, we should as far as is in our power, labor to 
advance the cause of virtue and education, and in this re- 
spect to follow in the footsteps of our fathers. 

The age in which we live, is an age of bustle, toil and 
enterprize. But it is by no means a merely useful or a 
superficial age. The great principles of civil liberty, of 
the rights of conscience, and of freedom of opinion, were 
never better understood, or more practically enforced. 

It is an age, too, when much is required of us all. Yes, of 
us, a part and parcel of that great Anglo-Saxon race, which 
now bids fair to carry our own native language and its lit- 
erature over a great part of the world. Over all the North 
American continent — along the shores of the Pacific, in the 
West Indies, in Great Britain, over the eastern coast of 



29 

Africa, at the Cape of Good Hope, throughout many of the 
islands of the Pacific, and along the southern part of Asia, 
the language which we speak is fast spreading itself, and 
bids fair to become in these regions the only language. 
Like Aaron's rod it is swallowing up the rest. 

What changes have been produced during the last hun- 
dred years ! Society has been revolutionized throughout the 
greater part of the civilized world. The political elements 
of all Europe have been violently agitated, and though the 
forms of government have not ,been materially altered, the 
freedom of the citizen has been in many instances greatly 
enlarged. In our own country, the changes as we run over 
them with a rapid glance, appear to have been magical. 
Our own empire State, which in 174U was an English 
Colony, and numbering little more than one hundred thou- 
sand souls, now tells her children by millions.* The scat- 
tered English Colonies of North America, then feeble, and 
with some million and a half of people stretching for thou- 
sands of miles along the sea-board, and looking up to England 
for support and protection, as infant children to a mother, 
now present the proud spectacle of a united nation, standing 
in the front rank, with her canvass whitening every sea, with 
vast resources, with gigantic internal improvements in the 
separate States, and with nearly twenty millions of freemen 
reposing in security beneath the folds of her star spangled 
banner. 

Could we be permitted to draw aside the curtain which 
veils futurity and look into coming years — could we cause 
to pass before us as a moving panorama, our country as it 
will present itself a hundred years hence, what an interesting 
view should we behold. For myself, I can but believe that 
we shall continue a united people, that the strong ties of 

* Note D. 
3* 



30 



interest which have hitherto bound us together, will continue 
unbroken, and be strengthened by the continually increas- 
ing facilities of communication between the distant parts 
of our widely extended country. In that event this nation, 
judging from the past, will in all probability occupy the 
greater part of all North America, will number at least fifty 
millions of inhabitants, and stand in the van of the civi- 
lized nations of the earth. 

We are here a small community, and our influence and 
our efforts may not be widely felt ; but while we live, we 
can labor in our various circles to promote peace and har- 
mony among the different States of our Union, and dying, 
we can leave the injunction to our children. We can urge 
upon them to look back upon their common descent, to 
consider their common inheritance, and to look forward to 
a common destiny. 

And standing here, and looking back upon the century 
which has just ended, and upon its history which is certain, 
and looking forward to the century before us, whose history 
Is uncertain, may I not in the name of this assembly in- 
voke and enjoin the rising generation, our children, and 
our children's children, to preserve unimpaired the institu- 
tions which we commit to them, and to maintain unbroken 
our glorious union. 

To them 1 would say, as you enter into possession of this 
goodly land, as you walk forth and look upon the hill and 
upon the valley, upon the river rolling in power, and upon 
the brook that sparkles at your feet, as you listen to the 
sighing of the breeze as it moves gently through the forest, 
and to the music of the feathered songsters, as they warble 
forth their notes of praise — when the breath of the morn- 
ing fans you, and you inhale the scented air as it comes to 
you over the green meadow and the opening flower — re- 
member that these blessings, though in some degree com- 



31 

mon to all mankind, are no less the special gift to you from 
your Creator, and that for the same blessings your fathers 
returned thanks to the great Giver of them all. 

As you enter upon the glorious inheritance of civil and 
religious liberty, upon the blessings and enjoyments of Chris- 
tianity and civilization, and behold the proud monuments 
of your country's greatness, may you remember that in by- 
gone times your ancestors toiled and sacrificed their pro- 
perty and their lives in the purchase of that inheritance, 
and that they thus consecrated it by their tears, their prayers, 
and their blood. 

We commit then that inheritance to your keeping. It is 
your as well as our birthright. And may he who at the 
close of another hundred years shall be permitted to stand 
up and deliver over to his fellow citizens the record of that 
century, be enabled to say as we can this day — blessed be 
the land of our birth — and blessed be the memory, and 
honored be the names of those who have entrusted that 
inheritance to us. 



SPEECH 



GOVERNOR W. H. SEWARD, 



LETTERS, TOASTS, «fcc. 



At the dinner table, Robert Campbell, Esq., of 
Cooperstown, presiding, after the removal of the cloth the 
following prefatory remarks and toasts were offered by 
Judge Hammond. 

*' One hundred years ago the rich lawn which overspreads 
this beautiful Valley, was first pressed by the foot of civilized 
man. Sixty-four years ago the sun rose on a population 
sparsely scattered over the fairest portion of a great Conti- 
nent, dependent upon and governed by a Monarch, separa- 
ted from them by an ocean three thousand miles in width. 
That same sun set upon that same people free and indepen- 
dent. 

"Since that day the tide of our national prosperity, 
(thanks to a beneficent Providence,) has flowed quietly and 
steadily onward, and we are now a great, free, and happy 
nation. No wonder then, that on this double celebration, 
every countenance I behold is lighted with joy and exulta- 
tion. Party jealousies and political differences, those small- 
er evils which always accompany that best gift of Heaven, 
liberty, can have no place here. All of us admire the for- 
titude, and lament the sufferings, and venerate the virtues, 



33 



and exult in the success of the patriotic Pioneers — all re- 
joice in the Independence of this country — and all cordial- 
ly approve of the principles which excited our fathers to de- 
clare that Independence. To add still higher to the enjoy- 
ment of the festivities of the day, we have heen honored 
with the presence of the venerable and venerated head of 
the Literary Institutions of the Empire State, (whose shin- 
ing talents and high personal merit would render him an 
ornament to any Literary Institution on the Globe,) and of 
his Excellency the Governor of the State. He, too, who is 
emphatically the Representative of the whole people of 
New-York, on this our national jubilee, has chosen to re- 
pose himself upon this quiet spot in the troubled ocean of 
political life. 

"Although at other times the spirit of party may howl 
around ; here, on this hallowed day, without one discordant 
note, all hearts unite in the shout for Independence, Liber- 
ty, Union, and the Constitution. 

*< Mr. President : In behalf af the Committee of Ar- 
rangements, I take great pleasure, and I am sure it will be 
highly gratifying to this company while I propose to you the 
health of 

"Our Felloiv-Citizen,Wii.j.i\m H. Seward, Governor 
of this State — of the Empire State. We hail his appear- 
ance on an occasion so interesting, and we appreciate the 
honor he does us by becoming our guest. 

" No higher evidence can be furnished of exalted talents 
and distinguished personal merit, than an election to the 
first office in the State by the voluntary suffrages of a greats 
free, intelligent, and virtuous people." 

The Governor replied as follows : 

Ours is a country in which all that is oM is yet new. 
We may deceive ourselves with the belief that we have an* 



34 



tiquity, but we no where find its ruins. I have been im- 
pressed with this in looking upon the celebration of the 
foundation of this beautiful town, while all around me are 
the evidences of youthful ness and prosperity. I have al- 
ways desired to visit this place so long an outpost of civili- 
zation in the western forests. Your annals have been made 
interesting by the fortitude, energy, and enterprise of your 
forefathers, and memorable by the perils, privations, and 
desolations of savage warfare. I have desired to see for 
myself the vallies of Otsego, through which the Susquehan- 
nah extends his arms and entwines his fingers with the tri- 
butaries of the Mohawk, as if to divert that gentle river 
from its allegiance to the Hudson. If I could have chosen 
the time for a visit here it would have been on this occa- 
sion, when the political excitement, unavoidable in a coun- 
try where the conduct of rulers is watched with the jealousy 
of freemen, is temporarily allayed, and the discordant ele- 
ments of party strife are hushed under the influence of re- 
collections of a common ancestry, and common sufferings 
in the cause of liberty. 

Our gifted orator has given us your entire local and do- 
mestic history. Does it not seem strange that so many ex- 
traordinary changes, so many important events, and so many 
thrilling incidents have occured in the lapse of a hundred 
years. A hundred years I how short a period! That life 
is considered short which does not reach fifty years, and 
that one is only very long which comprises a hundred. A 
hundred years ! A hundred times this period of twelve 
months which the Earth requires for the irrigation of its 
soil and the production of fruits ; a hundred times this 
circle of three hundred and sixty-five days : days that so 
often pass like a dream and are unnoted 'but by their loss.' 
Who that places a tomb stone in the village church-yard to 
the memory of a departed friend, would not sigh to think 



35 

that that monument of his affection will fall to the earth 
and his friend occupy an undistinguished grave within a 
hundred years? Who, that establishes a Constitution, in- 
vents an engine, teaches a new science, or founds a new 
sect, would be content that his community, his invention, 
his science, or his creed shall give place to new discoveries 
wi hin a hundred years? Yet a hundred years is no un- 
important portion of time. It includes the periods of four 
generations. In a single century four thousand millions of 
human beings appear on the earth, act their busy parts and 
sink into its peaceful bosom. A little more than half that 
period carries us back to the time when this great and free 
empire, now respected in every land, had no place among the 
nations of the earth. Only a hundred times has the scythe 
passed over this valley since your ancestors pursued their 
weary way up the Mohawk and over these hills, and planted 
here the first settlement of the Anglo-Saxon race west of 
the H udson. They found the Six Nations here as confident 
of perpetual enjoyment of this fair land as we now are. 
And yet so soon the tide of emigration has flowed over this 
valley and filled the vallies of the Ohio, and the Wabash, 
and the Mississippi, and the Missouri, and now scarcely 
the name of the Six Nations remains. Only twice a 
hundred years have elapsed since the first navigator enter- 
ed the Bay of New York, and not four centuries have pass- 
ed since Columbus astonished the world with the discovery 
of this great continent. It is only ten centuries since all 
Europe moved by wild fanaticism poured her embattled 
hosts upon the fields of Palestine, and less than sixty 
times a hundred years, according to an accustomed chro- 
nology, carry us back to the epoch when there was no time, 
nor light, nor life, nor earth, nor heavens, and God said 
let all these be, and they were. 

W^e have reviewed the record of the last hundred years 



36 

concerning the inhabitants of this beautiful valley. What 
is its more general history, and what is its promise of the 
future? Alas! that it must be said, although the spirit of 
Christianity has diffused a wider and warmer influence 
than ever before, yet the last century like the fifty seven 
that preceded it has been filled with the calamities of man- 
kind. It dawned upon one blood scene of war, extending 
throughout England, Russia, Prussia, Poland, Spain, Bava- 
ria, Sardinia and France. Through a period of eighty 
years, with the occasional intervals of partial peace, the fires 
of war burned over the continent of Europe after extend- 
ing desolation into Asia, Africa, and even this new and re- 
mote continent, until within our own recollection the 
world's great disturber was contined on the rock of St. He- 
lena and the exhausted nations found repose and peace. 
No nation has escaped the evils of war, and tew have been 
exempt from revolution. Hostile armies have overrun 
France, Holland, Saxony, Belgium, Bavaria, Sardinia, 
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Prussia, and other 
German States, Poland, Russia and Switzerland, Egypt 
and Persia and all the States of North and South America. 
Some maintained their sovereignty, some received their in- 
dependence, but others have gone down forever. No won- 
der that the pious and benevolent poet exclaimed, 

" My ear is pain'd, 
My soul is sick, with every day's report 
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd." 

The occupation of man has been war, his ambition con- 
quest, his enjoyment rapine and bloodshed. 

Yet dark as the picture of the last century seems, it is 
relieved by lights more cheering than any that has shone 
upon our race in the previous course of time. The human 
mind has advanced with unparalleled rapidity in discoveries 



37 

in science and the arts. Civilization has been carried into 
new regions, and has distributed more equally than ever here- 
tofore the enjoyments and comforts of life. — The education 
which a hundred years ago was a privilege of the few, is now 
acknowledged to be the right of all. What were luxuries a hun- 
dred years ago, are common enjoyments now. A renovating 
spirit is abroad in the world. The slave trade, a hundred 
years ago regarded as lawful commerce by all Christian na- 
tions is now denounced as piracy by most civilized States, 
and the rights of man are secured by benign and whole- 
some laws. All expense and delay in passing and trans- 
portation from place to place are an incumbrance upon hu- 
man labor. Yet it seems as if it were but yesterday since 
we learned that burthens may be more cheaply carried on 
parallel iron rails than on the rough and unequal surface of 
the ground, and now rail-roads are common thorough-fares, 
and animal force is too feeble an agent for locomotion. A 
gentleman upon whom age seemed to have lightly laid his 
hand, has told me that less than forty years since he dined 
with Chancellor Livingston at Paris. The party was com- 
posed of statesmen and men of science. The patience of 
the guests was exhausted by a visionary youth named Ful- 
ton, who engrossed the conversation by an argument to 
prove that if he could obtain a small fund he could con- 
struct a boat to be propelled by the power of steam and navi- 
gate the Hudson river with the velocity of four miles an 
hour! Those who reflect upon the rapidity with which 
intelligence, social, commercial and political, is diffused 
throughout our country and the civilized world, will hardly 
believe that a hundred years ago scarcely a dozen vessels 
arrived in all our ports from Europe, and that seventy-six 
years ago a mail coach was unknown. The object of all 
government is the welfare of the governed, yet it is only 
sixty.fi ve years since this model of practical, permapent and 

4 



38 

free republican government was set up for the maintenance 
of American liberty, and to animate the hopes and efforts of 
mankind. The religion of the cross is carried farther and 
more eftectiveij now, than under the banner of Constan- 
tine or even the preaching of the Apostles, The philoso- 
phy of Bacon, and the Newtonian and Copernican systems 
were taught a hundred years ago, and alchymy after long 
abuses of the credulity of mankind had introduced the ele- 
ments of Chemistry, but the practical advantages resulting 
from all these sciences have been realized chiefly within a 
hundred years. 

I lately met the secretary of an Eastern Prince. He 
was a man of education and refinement, and had been se- 
lected by his master to make a gorgeous present of Eeastern 
luxuries acceptable to the President of the United States. 
We were standing near an almost speaking bust of Wash- 
ington. I asked him if he knew the likeness. He an- 
swered in the negative. I told him it was Washington, the 
deliverer, the father of our country, but he had never read, 
had never heard of Washington. I confess I was aston- 
ished to find a man who had never read or heard of Wash- 
ington, but I was no longer surprised that the Sultan of Mus- 
cat was a despot and his subjects slaves. If the prin- 
ciples of civil liberty are so imperfectly understood now^ 
what could have been the condition of human rights before 
the day of Sicard, La Fayette, Wilberforce, Paine, Jeffer- 
son, Hamilton and Washington. How obscure must have 
been the science of laws before Montesquieu, Puffendorf, 
Blackstone, Benthem and Livingston reduced it to form 
and symmetry. How limited would be our knowledge of 
history if we were deprived of the writings of Rollin, Rob- 
ertson, Leland, Hume, Gillies, Littleton, Priestly, Marshall, 
Russel, Roscoe, Gibbon, Hallam and Raynal. How has 
the human mind been enlightened in that most mysterious 



39 

of all mysteries, itself, by the philosophy of Stuart, Reid and 
Brown. How has theology and moral science been en- 
riched by Edwards, Jenyns, Paley, Zimmerman, Johnson 
and Ferguson. In natural philosophy what a blank 'would 
be produced by striking out the discoveries of Herschell, 
Halle, Franklin, Davy, Rumford and Delonti. — How profit- 
less would be our researches in natural history, without Lin- 
liseus and BufFon for our guides. What would we have 
known of political economy but for the writings of Malthus, 
Smith and Say. We can scarcely conceive of literature 
destitute of the works of Cowper, Pope, Thompson, Beat- 
tie, Gray, Gay, Goldsmith, Johnson, McPherson, Roscoe, 
Scott, Burns, Goethe, Byron and Moore. In even such a 
superficial review as this of the contributions of the last 
century to the knowledge, virtue and happiness of our race, 
we forget that the human mind has been two thirds of the 
whole period stretched in extreme tension in the excite- 
ment of war, and that what it has accomplished in the way 
<of science and art, has been done in its occasional seasons 
of repose from the study and occupation of arms, that what 
has been expended in establishing schools, colleges and 
seminaries, and in making roads and canals, has been only 
what has been saved from the prodigality of war. Happy, 
thrice happy, will it be for us and for mankind if we extract 
from the history of the last century its true philosophy. 
Among its instructions are of a certainty these truths. 
That peace is indispensable to the improvement and happi- 
ness of man, that improvement is his highest duty, and 
arts, not arms, his right occupation. That Republican 
Government resting upon equal and universal suffrage can 
only secure an exemption from the ambition of conquest 
and the popular discontents which involve nations in foreign 
wars and civil commotions. That a Republican Govern- 
ment resting upon universal and equal suffrage can only b,Q 



40 

maintained in a community where education is universally 
enjoyed, and where internal improvements bind together 
the various portions of a country in a community of interest 
and affection. Let us then extend our system of schools 
and our churches, and take care that every child in the state, 
whatever be his faith, his language, his condition or his cir- 
cumstances, or those of his parents, is brought to the instruc- 
tion of these schools and churches. Let us do this, and let us 
put on steam upon the land, and steam upon the river and the 
sea, and the glorious career upon which our country has just 
entered will continue to be more successful and more glori- 
ous still. Those who shall celebrate the next centennial 
aniversary will bless our memories, and the great prediction 
of our religion will no longer seem apocryphal, that a time 
is coming when the nations shall live in peace and the 
knowledge of the Lord shall extend over the whole earth. 

By the Governor. Cherry Valley, fortunate in the fer- 
tility of its soil, and in the intelligence and virtues of its 
inhabitants, its early annals constitute a chapter of most 
thrilling interest in the history of the State. 

James Brackett, Esq. then rose and expressed the senti- 
ments of the company towards the Rev. Dr. Nott, in the 
following words : 

Vulgar errors have hitherto prevailed among men, and 
still prevail, notwithstanding the s flood of light which has 
recently been shed on society. One of the most prevalent, 
at the present time, is the opinion, that wit and wisdom, 
profound thinking and popular eloquence cannot dwell to- 
gether ; that if one be a wit, he cannot be grave and scien- 
tific ; if he be a deep thinker, he must be perpetually enga- 
ged with abstractions, and cannot be imbued with divine 
philosophy, and the best, holiest and lofliest feelings of 
our nature. The biography of the ancients, to which it is 



41 

unnecessary to recur for examples, would give the lie to the 
theory. Britain, our mother country, at a comparatively re- 
cent period, has effectually contradicted it in the persoias of 
^acon, Milton and Burke. The ilUi^trious dead of our 
own young country have also done enough to correct the 
error in Henry, Franklin, Hamilton and Ames. If fur- 
ther proof were wanting, we have a living and striking ex- 
ample before us in the person of our distinguished orator 
and guest. Dr. Nott : eloquent, imaginative, learned, philo- 
sophical and profound at the same time. Honor to his name. 

These toasts at the suggestion of Dr. Nott were drank 
without wine or other alcoholic liquor. Exhaustion from 
the fatigues of the day prevented President Nott from res- 
ponding to the sentiment offered by Mr. Brackett. 

The following regular toasts were then drank accompa- 
nied by the firing of cannon. 

REGULAR TOASTS. 

1st. The natal day of our Independence, one of the days 
we celebrate. It will be memorable for the good of the 
human family from 1776 to the end of man's history. 

2nd. Old Otsego : Cherry Valley :— Her pioneer settle- 
ment commenced a hundred years ago by civilized man : — 
never before so honoured as on this day ; though her young, 
er sisters in the mighty west, have eclipsed her in wealth 
and population, yet the patriotism of her sons never sleeps 
nor tires. 

3rd. Constitutional Union — The ark of safety : the hope 
of the civilized world. May no paricidial arm be stretched 
forth to dismember it : if so, let that arm perish. 

4th. Washington — The name of names : the hero of 
heroes : the statesman of statesmen: he could and did con- 
quer self: moreover he conquered for his country : the 

4' 



42 

whole of the new and most of the old world are vocal with 
his praises. 

5th. Our Army and Navy — The first composed of citi- 
zen soldiers : the lastof tars ever ready to defend the striped 
bunting. 

6th. The President of the United States. 
7th. Our Judiciary — Hitherto among the proudest monu- 
ments of the wisdom of our ancestors. May those who 
occupy its high seats, ever hereafter as heretofore, be intel- 
ligent and honest ; then will " life, liberty, and the pursuits 
of happiness," be safe> free, and equal to all. 

8th. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence — 
All gone : but the memorial of their devotion to liberty, to 
Country, are perennial, and can never fade or die. 

9th. New York — Prominent, if not pre-eminent, among 
ner sister States for wealth, population and enterprise : her 
march in improvement is still onward. 

10th. The Governor and Liewt. Governor of our noble 
State. 

11th. Our Common Schools. — Under proper discipline, 
the nurseries of integrity, industry and intelligence : when 
the foundation is surely laid, the superstructure will stand : 
when the basement is well lighted, those aloft can see : and 
the spoilers of equal rights will be discomfited. 

12th. Colleges — Well endowed ; wisely conducted : the 
brightest jewels in the diadem of national glory. 

13th. The surviving Soldiers of the Revolution — Alas ! 
how few, and pressed by the hand of time, together with the 
glorious band of their departed brethern : the measure of 
their honor and renown is full : having been instruments, 
under God, of bringing about the largest liberty, consistent 
with public order and security, and individual safety and 
happiness. 



43 

The following letters which had been received by the 
Committee of Arrangements were then read. 

From the Hon. William C. Bouch, 

Fulton, June 26, 1840. 
Gentlemen : 

I have the honour to acknowlede the receipt of your polite 
invitation, under the date of 10th instant, to join the 
Citizens of Cherry Valley, on the 4th day oflJuly next, in 
a Centennial celebration of the first settlement of that 
place. 

It would give me great pleasure to meet my fellow citi- 
zens of Cherry Valley, on the 4th of July, but I regret [to 
say, it will not be convenient for me to do so. 

The painful revolutionary incidents connected with Cher- 
ry Valley are scarcely equalled in their atrocity. 

The inhabitants of my native county (Schoharie) were at 
the period alluded to, and are now your neighbours ; and 
like those of Cherry Valley, at the settlement of the Country, 
and in the war of the Revolution, drank deep the cup of suf. 
fering and affliction ! 

Please to accept the following sentiment. 

The Citizens of the town of Cherry Valley ; may they 
cherish in grateful recollection the privations and suffer- 
ings of the first settlers ; may they properly estimate the 
price paid for liberty, and may they appreciate the value of 
institutions which secure to the Citizen equal rights and 

privileges. 

Your Obedient Servant, 

Wm. C. Bouck. 

By Wm. Campbell, Esq. 

William C. Bouck — A descendant of the German Pio- 
neers of the Valley of the Schoharie River. His talents 



44 

anti integi-lty and purity of character are an honour tohiV pa- 
triotic ancestors. 

From the Hon. Levi Beardsley. 

Oswego, June 29, 1840. 
Gentlemen : 

Your respective favours have been received inviting me 
to attend a Centennial anniversary of the settlement o^f 
Cherry Yalley, on the 4th of July next, and advising me of 
my appointment as one of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments. 

To meet my old associates, the Citizens of Cherrey Val- 
ley, and to unite with them in the usual exercises of our 
National Anniversary, would of itself afford a strong in- 
ducement; but the present occasion, uniting the National 
celebration, (dear to all Americans) with that of commemo- 
rating the settlement of your beautiful and romantic valley 
after 100 years have gone since that interesting event, ren- 
ders an attendance and participation in your festivities far 
more desirable, and enhances its value in a tenfold degree. 

To contemplate with you, and with your friends in 
attendance, the stupendous results that have followed the 
train of events since the Pioneers first scaled the barriers 
that surround you, and gave life, and vigour, and civili- 
zation, where all was stillness and the solitude of nature, 
save only as interrupted by the wild man of the forest, must 
afford a mental gratification that cannot but be appreciated 
by all, unless dead to the vivifying influences of philosophy, 
morals, literature, arts, and religion. 

I can assure you with the utmost sincerity that your town 
and your citizens rank high in my estimation. It is the 
birth-place of my children, and has been my residence for 
30 years, and that too during the best portion of my life. 

To suppose that I would so long remain among you, and 



45 

yet imagine that strong attachments had not been formed, 
would imply an absence of the sympathies and refined sen- 
sibilities of life, and a palpable libel upon human nature. 

My business and engagements are such that I cannot 
be with you : but I beg you to accept my thanks for your 
kind remembrance of me, and desire you to "assure your 
(and my) friends that my absence must not be imputed to 
the want of proper appreciation of the interesting ceremo- 
nies and festivities contemplated, or a just estimate of your 
(and their) personal worth, and respectful attention. 

You will allow me to propose the following sentiment;, 
while I again assure you of my continued kind respects and 
regards, and subscribe myself, 

Your obdient Servant, 

Levi Beardsley. 

Cherry Valley and its Citizens. — " If I forget thee, let 
my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave 
to the roof of my mouth." 

To W. S. Hammond, Secretary, and William Campbell, 
Chairman of the Com. of Arrangements. 

By Mason Fitch, Esq. 

Levi Beardsley — The kind neighbour, the useful citi- 
zen, the clear sighted and able Legislator, and the faithful 
friend. — While we regret his removal from us, he carries 
with him our cordial wishes for his prosperity and happi- 
ness. 

From the Hon. Sherman Page. 

Unadilla, June 22, 1840. 
Gentlemen: 

Your polite and kind letter inviting me to a participation 
with you in the festivities of a Centennial celebration resolv- 
ed on by the Citizens of your Town, to take place on the 



46 



4th of July now approaching, reached me through the mail 
this morning. 

I beg you to accept for yourselves and for the indepen- 
dent and patriotic yeomanry of your Town, for whom you 
act, as a Committee of Arrangements, assurances of my 
gratitude and respect, and although I am unable from en- 
gagements heretofore made, to be with you in person on 
that day, yet you have my best wishes, and the following 
santiment. 

Cherry Valley, beloved, and elder sister of the 22 in the 
family of the good old Otsego, from her frontier and expos- 
ed situation during a great portion of the last Century has 
often put on the habiliments of woe. May her future happi- 
ness and prosperity be uninterrupted. 

Very Respectfully yours, 

Sherman Page. 

By James Hetherington, Esq., Supervisor of the town of 
Cherry Valley. 

Sherman Page, late Representative in Congress from 
the County of Otsego ; we regret his absence from our fes- 
tive board. 

From Gen. Jacob Morris, of ButlermUis. 

Butternutts, June 19, 1840. 
Gentlemen : 

I was yesterday favoured with your invitation to pass the 
ensuing 4th of July in commemoration of the Centennial 
celebration of the Citizens of Cherry Valley, on the first 
founding of your beautiful village. 

It would afford me great pleasure to be with you on that 
interesting occasion, but the defect of sight, one of the in- 
-fjrrraties of age, which has come upon me, must deprive me 



47 



of that honour. Wishing you however a happy day, I re* 
main, Gentlemen, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Jacob Morris. 

From Jlrchihald Campbell, Esq. 

Albany, June 30, 1840. 
My Dear Sir : 

I have received the letter of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments of Cherry Valley of which you are chairman, stating 
that this summer completes one hundred years since that 
town was first inhabited by civilized man — that the citi- 
zens thereof have resolved on a Centennial celebration of 
that event on the 4th of July next, and inviting me to parti- 
cipate with them in the festivities of that day. 

Permit me through you to tender to the Committee my 
sincere thanks for their kind invitation, and assure them 
that it would give me great pleasure to participate with 
them on so interesting an occasion, but on account of busi- 
ness that cannot be dispensed with, I shall be obliged to 
remain here. 

Although the inhabitants are generally to join in this Cen- 
tennial celebration, yet I presume from what I have heard 
you say heretofore, that many of our clan will be present, 
particularly the descendants of your enterprising progenitor, 
who was one of the first settlers of that romantic and cele- 
brated region. I would it were in my power to add even 
one more to the number of Sliochd Dhiarmid, who shall be 
there assembled. But as that cannot be, my sincere wish 
is that all of whatever name, who may assemble with you 
to honor the memory of the pioneers, and to celebrate the 
anniversary of our national Independence with sincere and 
honest hearts, may have their anticipations fully realized ; 
and, moreover, that prosperity and happiness may be multi- 



48 



plied to the residents of Cherry Valley during the coming 
Century. 

Yours, with great respect, 

Archibald Campbell. 
William Campbell, Esq. 

From Jllvan Stuart, Esq. 

Utica, June 18, 1840. 
Dear Sir: 

Your polite and kind invitation to be present at the com- 
ing festivities consequent upon the Centennial Celebration 
of the settlement of Cherry Valley, on the 4th of July next, 
as one of the Committee of Arrangements, gave me consid- 
erable pain, in reflecting how much pleasure I must forego 
in not being present on that solemn and interesting epoch 
in the life of your town. 

The last quarter of the century you are about to celebrate 
was nearly passed by me in Cherry Valley. It comprises 
the noontide of my existence, and that which will influence 
in some degree, for Weal or woe, my coming years ; as 
well as that of my posterity, more or less for years to come. 
But when 1 remember that town has been the theatre of so 
much sorrow ; yes, of some of the most tragic scenes of 
which man can be a victim, in the different stages of socie- 
ty through which one hundred years may bring our race — 
the sad remembrances of so many of my compeers in life 
who have lain down under the weight of existence, before 
reaching its ordinary limit, I could wish to be with you, but 
rather to weep than rejoice ; yet I should rejoice that I could 
weep for my poor brother man. But I cannot come, as on the 
4th, I am to pronounce the Oration at Syracuse. 

But I hope it may be a day long to be remembered by all 
present, as they can never celebrate it again. That plea- 
sure belongs to the generation of 1940, the oldest of whom 
has not yet raised his head, or made a single bubble on the 



49 

ocean of time. Who will they be ? I hope many of them 
may be the descendants of the men and women who are 
playing their parts there now ; but whoever they may be, we 
■are well assured thuy can never be exposed to the class of 
dangers and sorrows which have been so eventful in the 
Hves of those of the by-gone century. 

With affectionate esteem, I am your friend, 

A Stewart. 
To Wells S. Hammond, Esq. Secretary, &c. &c. 

From the Hon. Peter J. Wagner, member of Congress 
from the county oj Montgomery 

City of Washington, June 19, 1840. 
My dear Sir : 

I return you my grateful acknowledgements for the hon- 
our of being invited, in behalf of the Committee, to attend 
your contemplated Centennial celebration at Cherry Valley, 
on the 4th proximo. Were it compatible with my public 
relations, it would indeed afford me the highest gratification 
to unite with you and your patriotic fellow-citizens in com- 
memoration, both of our National jubilee, and of the '^ perils 
and fortitude of the Pioneers" of the western frontier of New 
York, one hundred years since — the period in the annals of, 
our Colonial history when the first "Anglo-Saxon settlement 
west of Albany," was made in your village ; nor, need you 
be assured, sir, that the presence among you on that day, of 
the distinguished and highly respected President of Union 
College, would, in no small degree, impart to me an ad- 
ditional inducement. But as the session will be protracted 
beyond our ever memorable "Foitr//i," it will be the irk- 
some lot of myself and others, to celebrate that day in the 
House of Representatives, by being intent upon the " Sub. 
Treasury," or some other bill, of interest to the nation. I 

5 



50 



very sincerely regret, therefore, that I shall be unable to par- 
ticipate in your festivities, and beg that you will, for your- 
self and the committee, accept this assurance. 
I remain, dear sir, your 

friend and humble servant, 

P. J. Wagner, 
Hon. J. D. Hambiond. 

From the Hon. James Thompson, of Saratoga County. 
Milton, (Saratoga co.), June 27, 1S40. 
Gentlemen : 

Be pleased to accept my acknowledgements for the hon- 
our of your invitation to attend the Centennial celebration of 
the settlement of your town, and a " commemoration of the 
sufferings, perils, and fortitude of the pioneers of that then 
extreme western frontier," on the 4th of July next. 

I am deeply sensible of the loss of enjoyment I shall sus- 
tain, by a previous disposal of my time forbidding my meet- 
ing a t^ew higlfly valued old acquaintances and other distin- 
guished gentlemen, on an occasion so interesting and im- 
pressive. 

Let us all hope that the blood of the revolutionary mar- 
tyrs of Cherry Valley, and throughout the country, may long 
furnish the " seed" and aliment of that independence and 
rational liberty which has been so dearly purchased. 

I have the honour to be, gentlemen, with high consideration 
Your obedient servant, 

Jadies Thompson. 

By Abraham Koseboom, Esq. 

Franklin — The philosopher, statesman, and diplomatist, 
he stood before kings for his country's cause undaunted, he 
drew the lightning from" the clouds harmless, the light of his 
mind has illuminated both hemispheres. 



51 



Mr. H. Roseboom being called upon for a sentiment pre- 
faced it with the following remarks — 

Mr. President; 

Although this is a day of reminiscenes to the aged gen- 
tlemen who surround you, and one of deep interest to the 
younger portion of this assembly, who have met here to listen 
to the eloquent record of a hundred years ; yet, I trust, I shall 
be pardoned for seizing upon the occasion to pay a passing 
tribute to the memory of a merchant of the " olden time," 
and a friend to the early settlers of Cherry Valley. The mer- 
chant to whom I allude was born in the city of Albany in the 
year 1707, and died in that city at the age of 96 years. He 
imported his goods from England as early as 1732, and 
was the owner of a sloop on the Hudson river in 1740, 
which sailed between the cities of New- York and Albany, 
Many of the early settlers of Cherry Valley took passage on 
board his sloop at New-York and arrived in Albany. — 
Their passage is represented " as one of great length, at- 
tended with considerable peril ; and their provisions nearly 
exhausted." The arrival of a sloop at Albany, a hundred 
years since, was an event of no less importance, I think, 
than that of a steam-ship of our day. Mr. President, I will 
detain you but a moment longer in giving the particulars 
of the arrival and reception of the early settlers. Fancy 
yourself, sir, a hundred years ago in the city of Albany. 
That " brisk-looking figure" with the cocked hat, queue, 
and large square silver shoe-buckles, who is hurrying to- 
wards the dock, has just heard that this sloop is coming up 
the river, his eye now rests upon the well-known hull of 
the vessel, how rapidly he passes his hands over each other, 
he is evidently well pleased, anticipating the profits of the 
voyage. Now he hails the captain. "Welcome, Captain 
Prime, a good voyage and a large number of passengers, 



52 



this will pay well." Captain Prime replies, "that his cousin, 
(the merchant) is welcome to all the profits, the passengers 
are for the settlement of Cherry Valley, many of them will 
require aid, and you are expected to furnish provisions and 
implements to enable them to make a beginning." The 
expectations of the settlers were not disappointed, nor Was 
the merchant unrewarded, his store enjoyed nearly the whole 
trade of this section of country. He also purchased a large 
tract of land in this town which continues in the same fam- 
ily name till this day. And now, sir, permit me to offer a 
sentiment for this occasion. 

The memory ofHendrick Myndert Roseboom. He was 
a friend to the early settlers of Cherry Valley, and they re- 
warded him. 

By William Trull, Esq. 

General Winfield Scott — The Pride of the American 
Army, his name will be forgotten only when the history of 
his country shall be known no more. 

By G. H. Rogers, Esq., of Albany. 

Citizens of Cherry Valley — who have this day assembled 
to celebrate two important events in their history ; the one. 
the first Settlement of this beautiful Valley ; the other, of 
American Independence. The one will cause you to re- 
flect back with mingled recollections of pleasure and pain, 
the other inspires you with feelings of patriotism and at- 
tachment for American Institutions. 

It is hardly necessary to add, that the company separated 
with the kindest and best feeling, and highly gratified with 
the performances of the day. 



APPENDIX. 

NOTE A. 
{From the New York Observer of July llih, 1840.] 

HIGHLAND PSALMODY. 

Extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. McLeod of Capsie, Scotland, to an Irish 
Clergyman. 

" It is a singular fact, that although the New Testament was transla- 
ted into the Irish so far back as the year 1612, and the Old Testament 
in 1682, a metrical version of the Psalms has never yet been prepared 
for the people ; while on the other hand, the Highlanders of Scotland, 
speaking the Gaelic, have had a metrical version for 1 18 years before 
the New Testament was prepared tor them in their own dialect, and 
143 before they were in possession of the Gaelic Bible entire. The 
contrast is here very singular, the friends of the Scotch Gael showed 
themselves possessed of much wisdom in availing themselves of the ad- 
vantage arising from the enthusiastic atiachment of that'romantic people 
for poetry and tender melody. — Soon after the psalms were prepared 
for them, teachers of sacred music were sent over all the country to in- 
strj^ict the people in singing the Psalms. The effect was most rapid 
and extraordinary. The Highlanders became enthusiastic in their love 
of Gaelic psalmody — The hymns of the Druids, venerated forages, and 
the wild legends of fairies and mountain spirits, yielded to the sonc^s 
of Zion — the holy effusions of the contrite and chastened David sup- 
planted the ctro/iacA for the dead and wail for the dying. The hi^h 
enthusiasm of the people was not destroyed, but it received a new and 
holy direction. Indeed, it forms a new era in the history of our coun- 
try ; when those songs < which were first sung on Salem's towers' were 
heard from our glens and aisles ; when the plaintive lay of martyrs so 
justly dear to every Scottish heart, the 'Warbling Measure' of Sweet 
Dundee and of noble Elgin became mountam melodies. These were 

5* 



54 

days of marked revival, I have heard aged men declare that from the 
fleet of fishing boats along the coast of Cantyre and Arran, amounting 
at times to several hundreds, might be heard in the breeze of the even- 
ing, not the warlike music of the bagpipe, which referring to the feuds 
of the clans and scenes of strife, often engendered bitter and angry feel- 
ing, but one rapturous burst of sacred melody, and of a solemn pause, 
coming afresh again in full harmonious swell. Mighty was the effect 
of this in producing social order, honesty, and Christian kindness. I 
cannot withhold from you one anecdote which I lately heard with 
much delight, A mournful band of ^poor emigrants were expatriated 
their native valley a few years ago in the north of Scotland ; forced to 
leave the glen where their clan of people had resided for many genera- 
tions, and to seek a home in the dark and distant woods of America. 
In the melancholy progress towards the sea-shore, they came to the 
parish church, where they were wont to worship God, and near to which 
the remains of their fathers were deposited ; they entered the sacred en- 
closure — stood on the tombs of their relatives — 'returned and wept, and 
still returned to weep.' A good old patriarch addressed a few words 
of comfort to them ; he took out the Gaelic Psalm book from his 
pocket, 'Let us sing,' said he, 'the 46th Psalm,' a prayer was of- 
fered up to the God of their fathers, and their souls were refreshed — 
they proceeded without a murmer or complaint, without an expression of 
resentment or vengeance against the unfeeling chieftain. There is a 
magic spell in the true simplicity of sacred melody and sacred poetry 
which cannot fail to enchant and command the heart." 



NOTE B. 

The following tribute to the memory of Col. Samuel Campbell, the Ihsl 
of the early settlers of Cherry Valley, is from the pen of the late 
James O. Morse^ Esq. 

Another Patriot of the Revolution gone. 

Died— in this town on the 12th instant, Colonel SAMUEL CAMP- 
BELL, aged eighty-six years and four months. 

The deceased was born in the town of Londondetry, in the state ot 
New-Hampshire, in the year 1738, and came with his father at the age 
of four years to reside in this town, on the same farm on which he died. 

This place was then, not only an entire wilderness, but there were no 
Settlements to the west of it. During the French war, the deceased was 



55 



an active and efficient citizen, and was of essential service to the then 
Government, in assisting in the transportation of supplies to the Wes- 
tern ports. At the commencement of the war of the Revolution, he es- 
poused with great ardour the cause of the Colonies : and as an officer 
of the militia, rendered his country many important services* 

He was at the head of his command, in most of the actions and skir- 
mishes that were fought on this frontier; and particularly distinguished 
himself at the battle of Oriskany, under General Herkimer. 

At the massacre and conflagration of this town, by the enemy un- 
der Butler and Brant, in the year 1778, Col. Campbell was among the 
principal sufferers. 

His family, with the exception of himself and his oldest son, were all 
taken and carried into captivity ; his buildings burnt to ashes, and hi» 
moveable property nearly all destroyed. 

His wife and children,* were for a long time detained as prisoners 
among the Indians in Canada. 

Owing to the particular exertions of his early friend, the late George 
Clinton, then Governor of the State, an exchange of prisoners was ef- 
fected, by which Mrs. C. was liberated from captivity, and was ex- 
changed for a Mrs. Butler, the wife of a Colonel in the British service ; 
and the children of Mrs C. having been with some difficulty obtained 
from the Indians, were permitted to accompany her. 

In the year 1783, when Gen. Washington and George Clinton 
were on their exploring tour through this state, they were careful to 
call and spend a night with Col. C ; and both took occasion to express 
to him their warm thanks, for the zeal he had manifested in the cause 
of his country. 

Since the close of the Revolution, Col. Campbell has been a member 
df our State Legislature, and always rigidly adhered to those princi- 
ples of republicanism, which he embraced at the commencement of 
our struggle for independence. 

His character through life was irreproachai)le, and for many years 
he has been a consistent professor of Christianity. 

The night preceding the day on which he died, he retned to rest at 
his usual hour in perfect health, when he awoke in the mornins; he com- 
plained of ill health, and soon after was seized with a fit. vvhic;. render- 

* The sufftMirigof the captives taken at tliie place at that tiine, must have been 
intense. Tiny were taken in the month of NovemlnT, and maicind on foot down 
the Susqueliannah to its junction with the Tiopn river, tlieiice up that livir Cor some 
distance, tlicn to Geneva, then tu Niagara, and afterwards ihey were taken down 
to the neiglibourhood cf Montreal. 



66 

ed him wholly insensible, and he continued in this state till he ex- 
pired. 

No man ever posessed a belter constitution or enjoyed through so 
long a life better health. And it is a remarkable fact that he performed 
considerable personal labour, and with his own hands felled a tree the 
day preceding that on which he died. 

The deceased has left a very numerous circle of descendants, among 
whom are some of our principal citizens. 

Thus has anotlier of our Patriarchs been gathered to his fathers, and 
another of those Patriots to whose exertions we are indebted for our 
liberties, been taken from us. Every diminution of this band of wor- 
thies ou^ht to render the survivors more dear to us. 



NOTE C. 



The' following biographical sketch of Mrs Jane Campbell is from 
the pen of her friend Judge Mor.sc, and is taken from the Cherry. 
Valley Gazette of February 23d, 1836. 

OBITUARY. 

Died — At Cherry Valley, on the morning of the 17th instant, Mrs. 
Jane Campbell,, widow of the late Col. Samuel Campbell, in the nine- 
ty-third year of her age. 

If those whose lives have bsen eventful, whose characters have been 
marked with distinguished traits, and whose examples have been be- 
nign, deserve at their departure from life, something more than a brief 
notice, this aged lady merits an enduring biographical monument. 

Mrs. Campbell was a native of Antrim County, Ireland ; but her pa- 
rents emigrated to Newcastle, in the now state of Delaware, when she 
was quite young. Her residence in Newcastle continued till she at- 
tained her twenty-first or twenty-second year, when her parents pene- 
trated the wilderness to Cherry Valley, then the extreme frontier settle- 
ment, where she, in about a year, intermarried with the late Col. Sam- 
uel Campbell. 

At the commencement of the war of the Revolution, her husband 
and herself were very active and zealous in the cause of the country, 
and a garrison was erected and kept on their own farm, which contin- 
ued for some time the only one in the settlement . A Fort was, how- 
ever, subsequently erected in another spot, and a considerable military 
force siationed in it. 



57 



In the month of November, 1778, the sanguinary British partisan lead- 
er, Butler, Avilh the educated Mohawk Chief, Brant, with a force of re- 
fugees and Indians, as is well known, made an incursion into Cherry 
Valley, and Mrs. Campbell, >vith four of her children, and many others, 
were taken prisoners. 

She was marched on foot in that inclement season of the year, to 
what is now known as Tioga Point in the State of Pennsylvania; and 
from thence, by the head of Seneca Lake to the Indian Castle, about 
two miles from where the village of Geneva now stands. Here she spent 
ihe winter in an Indian village and was treated with comparative kind- 
ness by her captors. She suffered severely, however, for the want of 
clothing ; and towards spring the British Officers in the Garrison 
of Fort Niagara, hearing that there was a lady who was a prisoner at 
the Castle, near the outlet of Seneca Lake, sent a messenger on horse- 
back with female clothing and provisions for her letief. In the Spring 
she was taken lo Fort Niagara and ransomed from the Indians. She 
M'as subsequently taken to Montreal, or near there, where she remained 
till her captivity had been prolonged two years. 

The then Governor of this State, the venerated George Clinton, 
knowing of her captivity, made, in conjunction with Gen. Schuyler, 
special efforts for the liberation of Mrs. Campbell and her children. 
They prevailed on the British authorities to exchange them for a Mrs. 
Butler and her children, who had fallen into the hands of the Amer- 
icans. 

Mrs, C. was brought with her children (after the latter had been re- 
covered from the Indians) to Lake Champlain, and sent in a cartel to 
near the south end of the lake, where she was received by the Ameri- 
can authorities and sent to Albany. 

In her return from Montreal she was accompanied by several young 
ladies from Albany, who were at school at Montreal at the commence- 
ment of the war, and who had not been able sooner to find a safe op- 
portunity to return. During the voyage of the cartel-boat on the Lake, 
its character was mistaken, and they were fired at, which caused its 
conductors to land the ladies and send them on horse-back several 
miles into the interior of what is now the state of Vermont. The 
alarm was afterwards discovered to be a false one by those who fired at 
the boat, and the cartel with the female prisoners allowed to proceed. 

On the arrival of Mrs. C. at Albany, she was treated with great 
kindness, and she shared largely in the sympathies of many of the 
principal families there. She always spoke particularly of the kindneaa 
of the family of a Mr. Stevenson. 



58 



She returned to Cherry Valley, soon after the close of the war, and 
had the satisfaction to entertain as guests under her own roof, Wash-,, 
ington, Geo. Clinton, Col. Humphreys, and other distinguished men. 

Mrs. C. was the mother of six children all of whom are yet alive. She 
has also had thirty-five grandchildren, all of whom except one survive 
her; and her life has been spared to see among her descendants some 
of the most respectable citizens of our State. 

Having thus briefly sketched a few of the incidents in the life of 
this excellent woman, it remains to delineate some of the most promi- 
nent traits in her character. 

She possessed a fortitude and decision, rarely to be met with in 
either sex ; but those were not owing to a want of feminine gentleness, 
or any of the feelings and emotions peculiar to females. 

History informs us that there has been in all ages female patriots : 
and our departed friend may justly be added to the number. — She 
loved her country, its form of government, its institutions, and the cha- 
racter of its most distinguished sons. She always repelled all asper- 
sions cast upon any of these with an ardour, a clearness, and a force 
that would have done honour to a patriot of the other sex. 

She also possessed a clearness of perception and a facility of giving 
utterance lo it, that impressed her auditors most favourably. 

She always exhibited a native dignity that extorted commendation 
from all v/ho visited and conversed with her. In this, however, there 
was not the slightest degree of superciliousness ; but that peculiari- 
ty of mien and bearing ^^ hich so prominently distinguished the gentle- 
men and ladies of the old School. 

Her duties as a wife, mother, and grandmother, were discharged in 
a manner worthy of the imit^.tion of those who sustain those re- 
lations. 

She was a firm believer in Christianity ; and long a professor of it. 
She so eminently exhibited its virtues that all were convinced of the 
sincerity of her profession. She was in her last brief sickness depriv- 
ed of the power of conversation, but there is good reason lo believe 
that her faith enabled her to grapple with, and fully triumph over, the 
last great enemy. 

She had long worn her christian armour, and we trust she noio wears 
it, burnished anew in realms of light. 

The powers of her memory, as all her intellectual powers, were 
uncommonly vigorous ; and her reminiscenes of the history of our coun- 
try, and ofher personal acquaintance with many of the revolutionary 
worthies, continued fresh and vivid till near the close of her life. 



69 



She was a living chronicler of the scenes of by-gone days, and last 
female representative, in the region in which she lived, of that patriot- 
ic band who achieved our independence. 



NOTE D. 



" From the Avierican Almanac^ 1830." 
Colonial Satistics. — Population of the American Colonies, in 

1701. 1749. 



Massachusetts, 


70,000, 


220,000. 


Connecticut, 


30,000, 


100,000. 


Rhode Island, 


10,000, 


35,000. 


New Hampshire, 


10,000, 


30,000; 


New York, 


30,000, 


100,000. 


East and West Jersey, 


15,000, 


60,ooo: 


Pennsylvania and Delaware, 


20,000, 


250,000. 


Maryland 


25,000, 


85,000. 


Virginia, 


40,000, 


85,000. 


North Carolina, 


5,000, 


45,000. 


South Carolina, 


7,000, 


30,000, 


Georgia, 




6,000. 



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